HB 2 Committee of Conference Adopts Budget Amendment to Devastate Family Planning Programs
Contact Name: Marina Altschiller
Phone: (603) 271-3207
CONCORD – Today, during the committee of conference on HB 2, House and Senate Republicans adopted an amendment brought by Senator Jeb Bradley (R-Wolfeboro) that will even further jeopardize reproductive health facilities’ ability to serve Granite Staters. The amendment requires that any contract awarded to a reproductive health facility shall stipulate that the facility will permit the commissioner of DHHS to inspect their financial records and the commissioner shall certify to the governor and executive council at the end of each fiscal year that no state funds were spent on abortions. If the commissioner fails to make such determination, the facility forfeits all rights to further funding, or will be ordered to suspend providing all health care services until the family planning facility physically and financially separates from the reproductive health facility.
After the vote, committee member Deputy Senate Democratic Leader Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua) issued the following statement:
“This damaging amendment is based on a false narrative propagated by extremist Republicans intent on further dismantling women’s health care. State funds are not used to pay for abortions, period. Patients seeking an abortion in New Hampshire pay for those services out-of-pocket or through their health insurance carrier. Further, the financial reports for reproductive health care facilities are already readily available for public inspection on their websites.
Nowhere else in New Hampshire statute does the state hold patients and medical providers hostage pending financial audits. Despite what my Republican colleagues seem to believe, these centers provide much more than abortions. They provide cancer screenings, access to birth control, sexually transmitted infections treatment, breast exams, and primary care services. When these services are hamstrung because of this partisan policy, illness and suffering may increase, and that will be on the Legislature.”
###